Let that be enough
by stardustkr7
Summary: Barbara didn't really want to go to senior prom. Artemis, Bette, and Dick try to fix that.


**A/N:** I just had a little headcanon that I had to write out. Kinda short and sweet and sad. Enjoy!

* * *

"Barb! That's like the third guy you've turned down!" Artemis hissed as their classmate walked away dejectedly.

"I hardly know him! I can't just go to Prom with someone I don't know!" Barbara insisted, turning back to her locker. "Besides, I'm not sure I even want to go…"

"You don't want to go to Prom!?"

Bette had suddenly appeared at their sides and sounded completely scandalized.

"But you're in the running for Prom Queen! You have to go!"

"Yeah, so are you, Bette. There's no way I'm winning against you," said Barbara, rolling her eyes and slamming the locker shut.

"Well, the runner up is crowned Princess though," Bette said quickly.

Artemis and Barbara exchanged quick glances; of course Bette wouldn't even bother to protest that she wasn't going to win. And Barb wasn't really sure she wanted to be Princess to the tall blonde's Queen.

Besides, she didn't want to take a night off of patrol just to hang around while Bette was crowned and Artemis was making out with Wally in the corner and whatever random guy she finally decided to take, trying to put his paws all over her. No thank you.

"Even Artemis is going to Prom," said Bette. "No offense."

Artemis shrugged. "Wally seemed pretty enthused about coming into town. And now I don't have to go to his. But come on, Barb. If I'm going, you have to go too and eventually, the boys will stop asking you."

"Yeah, and my dad is letting us take his limo," Bette chimed in.

And that's how Barbara was roped into dress shopping that afternoon.

She sat on a bench in the large dressing room while Artemis paraded in the gown she'd finally settled on, a lovely dark green that shimmered and showed off her figure. Bette strode out of her room, with probably the twelfth or so dress she had tried. This one was orange; only Bette Kane could look like a radiant sunset in an orange dress rather than a traffic cone.

"Barb, I picked out a blue one for you. Why haven't you tried it yet?"

"You know who's partial to blue?" Artemis muttered, smirking slightly.

Barbara glared at her, knowing exactly the direction that comment was going.

"Fine, I'll try it."

She ended up buying the dress, or rather, Bette and Artemis stole her wallet and bought it for her. It was one of the rare times where the two blondes actually seemed to agree on something.

However, as Artemis predicted, it was the week before the dance and Barbara still had no date. All the guys she had turned down found someone else. And she still had standards.

By mid-week, she was seriously starting to get distressed about the whole situation. As she sparred with Dick in the Batcave one evening, she ended up spilling it all. To his credit, her best friend seemed fairly interested and concerned about what she considered to be a bit of a girly woe.

"…And they made me buy the dress. It was almost eighty dollars! And that was sale price! And Bette says her dad is letting us use the limo so basically its going to be Artemis, Wally, Bette, Bette's date, and then me. This whole thing is stupid!" Barbara said angrily, throwing a wild kick in his direction.

Dick easily dodged it, then blocked and deflected the punch that followed. "Come on, Babs. It's your senior prom. You're in the running for Prom Queen. It could be fun," he said.

"There's no way I'm going to beat Bette Kane out for Prom Queen. I'm just literally not popular enough."

"Well, at least Artemis and Wally will be there."

"Yeah, I give it three slow songs and they'll be making out under the bleachers," said Barbara wryly, circling and jumping over his attempt at a leg sweep.

They got a little closer to do more grappling work, having mostly been trading and deflecting from a distance.

"So at this point, your only real objection to going to the dance is not having a date?" Dick clarified, getting a hold of her arms behind her back.

She used her hips and leveraged his body in a throw over her shoulder, which he quickly turned into a flip and another, slightly more successfully leg sweep.

"I guess you're right," Barbara admitted, rolling over him onto the floor. She managed to wrestle him into a judo hold, pinning his chest down with her body and sticking an elbow in his neck.

"Then how about I be your date," he said lightly, taking a break from trying to escape her hold.

"What? But you're a junior…" Her grip slackened a little in surprise.

"I'm still allowed to go to the dance," he pointed out.

"Right … but are you sure? What about that girl you were seeing? Tracy or something?" she asked.

He looked confused for a second then said, "Ohh, you mean Lacey. Yeah, she sprained her ankle in softball practice. Also she's a sophomore so it's not like she has to go to prom. Besides, we're not really seeing each other anymore."

"Oh." Barbara frowned slightly at his casual dismissal of the latest girl of the month on Dick Grayson's arm. She got up off him and offered him a hand up.

"So, what do you say? Be my date to Prom?" he asked, now flashing her a typical charming grin that made her roll her eyes.

"Hey, Barbie! If you don't want to go with Grayson, I'll take you to Prom! Let Jason Todd show you a good time."

Barbara rolled her eyes as the younger boy wandered over to them, a smirk across his face and mischief in his eyes, like always.

"Shouldn't you be doing homework or at the Cave, pestering Troia?" Dick asked, raising an eyebrow at his younger brother.

"Stop pestering Donna," Barbara added.

"I don't pester her. We flirt. She wants me," said Jason, folding his arms. "But I'd make an exception for you, Babe."

"Jason, if you ever make that face at me again, I will break it," said Barbara simply. She turned to Dick again and added, "Be at my house at seven, that's when they're picking me up. Actually, be a little earlier because my dad will want to take pictures."

"I'll be there," he said, smiling _that_ smile at her, the one that made her feel _things_.

Gathering her wits, Barbara returned the smile before turning to head out of the training room.

"Hey, wait, Babs! What color is your dress?" he called after her.

"Nightwing blue," she called over her shoulder.

* * *

For only six kids, the back of the limo was pretty noisy. Partly due to the dynamic duo of Wally and Dick; the two just fed off each other's energy so well that it made for a great partnership in the field but a chaotic mess of obnoxiousness in the real world. More than once, Barbara and Artemis traded exasperated looks as Wally attempted to open a bottle of champagne, spilling it everywhere.

But the best part had been when Barbara stepped out the door after saying goodbye to her father and Dick was right behind her. Bette's jaw had literally dropped when she saw who exactly Barbara was taking to Prom.

"That's Dick Grayson!" she had hissed loudly, elbowing Artemis. Wally rushed forward to give his bro a high five and a very manly hug.

And now they were at the dance and just finished taking pictures and milling around waiting for the dance floor to fill up a little more. Barbara was wrong; it only took two slow songs before they lost track of Wally and Artemis.

But she was completely right about Bette winning Prom Queen.

"See? Aren't you glad you decided to come, Barb?" asked Bette gleefully as the redhead was crowned Princess. Her own tiara was significantly smaller and less exciting than Bette's.

"Thrilled."

When she exited the stage at last, Dick was waiting off to the side with that smile again, the one that literally made her feel like they were the only two people in the room. It was just them, just Dick and Babs. Her breath caught a little and she had to remind herself how to inhale as she reached him; she ended up getting a nose full of his cologne, some sort of expensive fragrance that was expertly applied. Damn, he always smelled nice.

"May I have this dance, Princess?"

"Sure."

They danced all the time together at fancy Wayne parties. Dick moved so fluidly that it was more a game to keep up with his elegance.

But suddenly, Barbara felt very aware of the fact that this was Senior Prom and there were a lot of pressures and connotations that went along with The Slow Dance at Senior Prom. Dick was holding her around the waist so close (they had always been overly comfortable in each other's personal space).

"You look beautiful, Babs. Did I tell you that?" he said in her ear.

"Thank you," she murmured, kissing his cheek on impulse.

He swallowed then turned his head so their lips were barely touching, and then he closed the space.

* * *

"Artemis! ARTEMIS! WALLY!"

Completely annoyed at the interruption, Artemis detached her mouth from Wally's to glare at Bette, who looked nothing short of frantic.

"What?"

"It's Barb and Dick! They're totally making out!"

Artemis sighed and looked over at Wally who just shrugged.

"Well?" Bette demanded. "Do you think they're gonna hook up?"

"Probably not," said Artemis, rolling her eyes. "Knowing them…"

"But why not?"

"Bette …" Wally began carefully. "As long as we've known Dick and Barbara, they've always been secretly head over heels for each other. And about once or twice a year, they get in one good make out before deciding to just stay friends."

"It's different reasons why every time. Sometimes, they just end up dating another person so the timing is off," Artemis continued. "Sometimes other things come up and distract them. Sometimes it's one of them claiming they aren't ready for the relationship. Trust me, it will be a while. Senior Prom will not be what gets them together, if at all."

"I wish they wouldn't waste time," Wally said in a strange moment of wisdom as he and Artemis traded looks.

* * *

Dick was kissing her. He was kissing her and it was even better than she remembered and maybe this whole prom thing wasn't such a bad idea after all.

He pulled away at long last, resting his forehead on hers and smiling again. It felt so natural, just so them.

The spell was broken when the music sped up again and the movement of other kids on the dance floor jostled into them.

"Come on, let's go," he mouthed at her, motioning to the edge of the floor where they had last seen the rest of their party.

Barbara nodded and took his hand as he led them through the crowd. He stopped suddenly and she ran into his back, a little wobbly on tall heels she wasn't used to wearing. Dick threw an arm around her waist to steady her.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked, observing the thoughtful look on his face as they stepped to the side of the room.

"My comm is going off. Kaldur wouldn't call unless he absolutely had to. He knows we're all at the dance," he said, frowning slightly and looking around.

She led him over to a quieter corner, standing right in front of him, very close. To an innocent bystander, they just looked like one of the many couples who just wanted a little moment to themselves. Meanwhile, Dick glanced around over her shoulder before pulling out the small device that looked a bit like a sophisticated cell phone.

"We gotta find Wally and Artemis," he sighed. "We'll need all of us. How are we going to ditch Bette?"

Barbara motioned to where the non-hero member of their group was dancing fiercely with her date (some guy on the varsity basketball team; Barb only recognized him because they practiced in the room next to where the gymnastics team practiced).

"Let's go."

The four were running down the dark hallways of the school towards their lockers where they had stashed costumes earlier, just in case they got called to help with something.

"Two hours and thirty four minutes. I think that's some kind of record for how long we stayed at one of these things before having to go to work," said Wally, looking at his watch and loosening his bowtie.

* * *

It was very late by the time Barbara stepped out of the showers at the Batcave, making her way to the main part of the cave where she found Bruce sitting before the computer, speaking on the phone.

"Of course, Alfred is keeping an eye on them all, Jim. I let them have a glass of champagne, nothing more than what they'd be allowed at a party … Yeah, I think they all had a great time… Anyway, we'll just keep Barbara here … Yes, I spoke with Artemis' mother as well … Great, talk to you tomorrow, Jim."

She had almost forgotten to worry about their alibi, although at this point, she wondered if her father was starting to suspect why she stayed the night over here so often.

"Dick not out yet?"

"No."

"You may want to check on him and make sure he didn't fall asleep," Barbara yawned.

She saw the corner of his mouth quirk up slightly in amusement before he turned to her.

"I'm sorry about your night Barbara. Senior prom is supposed to be a memorable high school experience, from what I understand," Bruce observed.

Barbara shrugged. "It's not a big deal. We caught the bad guys. I don't mind skipping out on a stupid dance. Besides, maybe Dick will take me to his next year."

It was an afterthought but she was regretting letting it slip when Bruce studied her thoughtfully. Sometimes she really hated how he just knew everything. No matter how hard she tried to hide her feelings, Bruce always knew. Damn.

"I heard you made Valedictorian," Bruce said after a few minutes and she relaxed when he changed the subject.

"As long as I don't fail Modern Literature," she said lightheartedly.

"Congratulations. I'm very proud of your success, Barbara."

"Thanks."

They fell quiet again. Barbara felt her eyes drawn towards the hallway she had just exited, the one that led to the locker rooms where Dick was still presumably in the shower. A sigh escaped her. The night had been going well enough.

"Barbara?"

She looked at him again, smiling sadly now.

"He's not ready yet."

"He wants to be. For you," Bruce assured her.

"I guess we'll see if that's enough."


End file.
